Try to handle the bad breaks

Goldie Hawn said, “Once you can laugh at your own weaknesses, you can move forward.”

For bridge players, this feels like a preferable variation: Once you can learn from your mistakes, you can improve.

In this deal, South was in four hearts, and West led the diamond king. How should South have moved forward? What were West’s more effective opening leads?

South’s two-spade game-try was an overbid. North, with a maximum 9 highcard points, two aces and a potential ruffing value in diamonds, immediately jumped to four hearts.

Declarer won the first trick on the board, drew two rounds of trumps, took two winning spade finesses and led his low spade to dummy’s ace. Now East defended well, discarding a diamond.

South needed to get into his hand to ruff his last spade. However, when he called for a club, East won with his ace, cashed the heart queen and continued with a diamond. West won with the queen and took the spade king to defeat the contract.

Declarer should open a road back to his hand earlier in the play. At trick two or three, South should lead a club. East wins and returns a diamond, but declarer can take the next trick, cash whatever high trumps he still holds, take two spade finesses and play a spade to the ace. Even if East discards, South ruffs a club in his hand and trumps the spade 10 with dummy’s heart nine. Declarer loses only one heart, one diamond and one club.

West defeats the contract if he starts with a low spade or club. The curious may analyze the lines.